Strictly’s new heart-throb Aljaz Skorjanec says the show has done wonders for
dancing

In a tiny basement studio, tucked away in a side street off London’s Covent Garden, things are getting extremely hot. Not just because the air conditioning is broken. Nor because I’ve worked up a sweat by shimmying around the room. But because my dance partner is Strictly Come Dancing’s new heart-throb, Aljaz Skorjanec, and he’s clasping me so close as he teaches me to waltz that I’m struggling to remember how to breathe.

Sculpted cheekbones, muscly chest and manly arms aside, Aljaz, who is paired with model Abbey Clancy in this year’s series, is the perfect teacher. I’ve put on my sparkliest shoes and my swishiest yellow dress, but the overall effect is more twinkle-toed canary than the graceful swan I was aiming for.

Nevertheless, Aljaz is patient, polite and pretends not to mind when I stomp on his toes or knee him in the thigh as my foxtrot falters. He whirls and glides around the studio, while I cling on to his (exceptionally broad) shoulders and totter two steps behind.

After just one show, Aljaz and Abbey have been tipped to win the eleventh series of Strictly, with odds on them taking the trophy slashed to 7-2. Their masterful performance last Saturday scored four eights, taking them to the top of the leader board, with a routine that judge Len Goodman described as “the dance of the night”.

And it’s not just their moves that are making headlines: viewers have been unable to ignore the pair’s chemistry, with some joking that Abbey’s husband, Stoke City striker Peter Crouch, might need to keep an eye on the Slovenian newcomer.

So, as he rehearses for tonight’s live show, I’ve come to see how the Strictly hunk is coping with all the attention – and to have a lesson of my own.

Before we start, Aljaz wants to set the record straight. “Look, I’m not hot. I’m actually pretty cold most of the time,” he grins.

That’s cleared that up, then – though I wonder if something might have been lost in translation. “Seriously, though, my job is to teach Abbey to dance, to make sure she has a good time and looks the best she possibly can. Anything else, whatever compliments I get, that’s a bonus.”

It’s not hard to see why the bright lights, glittering costumes and colossal audience figures of Strictly (more than 10 million tuned in to each of last weekend’s shows) might be overwhelming for Aljaz. Just 23 years old, he grew up in Slovenska Bistrica, a small town in eastern Slovenia, and has only been in the UK since February.

Having starred in Slovenia’s equivalent of Strictly, Dancing with the Stars, he had some idea of what to expect – but says nothing prepared him for dancing beneath that glitter ball for the first time.

“I wasn’t really aware of the scale of this thing,” he admits. “Then I went to the studio and saw the ballroom and thought 'Wow! I get it now!’ It’s incredible. The audience is great but when you think about how many people are watching at home, the pressure is even bigger.

“I come from Slovenia, where they only have two million people in the whole country. So that times five is pretty terrifying.”

Aljaz has been dancing since the age of five, when he enrolled in his first class without telling his parents. “I just signed myself up; they didn’t know what I was doing because it was during pre-school. I was secretly dancing. I’ve never stopped.”

His parents aren’t dancers, though his younger sister, Lara, teaches modern and hip-hop back home, and “when I see my mum and dad at a party, they always move well – so there might be something in the genes”.

If there is, Aljaz has certainly got it, racking up 19 Slovenian dance titles in Latin and ballroom, as well as numerous wins at world and European championships in his teens.

Then, five years ago, he gave up competitive dancing, because the judging was too political and he felt guilty about how much it was costing his family. “My parents invested a lot of money in it and spent hours driving me to training. When I was 18, it hit me. I didn’t have the heart to ask for help any more, so I decided to give up.”

Aljaz moved into theatre, auditioning for the West End musical Burn the Floor, in which he performed for four years. It was during this time that he met his girlfriend (sorry, ladies) Janette Manrara, an American dancer, who is also making her debut in this year’s Strictly, paired with the fashion designer Julien Macdonald.

Being the new guy on the show is, he says, “a privilege; I can learn something from the older pros every day”. He won’t reveal which of the judges he’s most scared of (“I’m going to try to please them all”); nor will he single out his and Abbey’s biggest rivals for the trophy.

Go on, just one name? “This year there is not one person who couldn’t go far. Everyone brings something to the table. Natalie [Gumede, the actress] is really good. Of course I think Abbey is by far the best dancer.”

Today, we’re learning the cha-cha-cha, which Aljaz and Abbey will also perform tonight. It starts with some basic stepping, then a jazz hands move called the “New Yorker”, and finally the “Cuban break”, which involves crossing your legs, wiggling your bottom and shuffling from side to side, all while looking your partner in the eye.

If that didn’t leave me flustered enough, we move on to a waltz – far too much body contact for me to recall any of the moves – and finish with the samba, in which my haphazard jiggling seems to make me “a natural”.

Choosing his favourite dance is “like picking a favourite finger”, but Aljaz prefers them slower. “I like the foxtrot most, because it’s very fluid.” His top tips for a beginner are to relax, be confident and remember that dancing is “just like walking, only with rhythm”. Rehearsing, too, is crucial: he and Abbey spend up to 10 hours a day practising their moves between the live shows. “I got lucky because she picks up steps quickly. Although she can find it hard to stay focused for more than five minutes.”

Despite working on the same show, Aljaz and Janette don’t get to dance together (she is too small to partner him in the professional dances) or see each other as often as they’d like. “Our lives run around Strictly now. We do talk about the show but it’s nice to switch off.”

Shows like Strictly, he says, have done great things for the dance world, encouraging amateurs to take up lessons and changing perceptions of the sport. “Before this started, it was a very small world. The only thing you could do was compete and hope that someone would see you and offer you something else. Doing a live show on TV really puts dancing in a good light. It shows that no matter how old you are, or how little experience you have, it’s never too late to start.”

So, how does Aljaz rate his and Abbey’s chances of winning? “To be honest I didn’t expect to do so well in week one,” he admits. “The number didn’t go well in rehearsals. But then Abbey nailed the routine and looked stunning. It’s still early as we’ve only done one style, so we need to see how we deal with Latin, the lifts, all those things it takes to win Strictly. Starting well has only made us want to stay at the top and keep on getting better.”

I know the feeling. As I leave the studio I find I’m craving sequins and a ballroom. The world might not be ready – but the glitter ball awaits.